Labor Force Trends of Asian Americans and Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders

Thursday, May 11, 2023

May is Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Let’s take a closer look at national labor force statistics for Asian Americans and for Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders.

BLS has been collecting data for about two decades in the Current Population Survey on the labor market characteristics of people who identify their race as Asian or Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander. From 2003 to 2022, the Asian population age 16 and older grew by 84 percent, from 9.2 million to 16.9 million. That was a significantly higher growth rate than for the overall population, which increased 19 percent over this period. From 2003 to 2022, the share of Asians in the U.S. population grew from 4 percent to 6 percent. Over the same period, the population of Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders increased 119 percent, from 511,000 to 1.1 million. Despite this rapid growth, Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders were still less than 1 percent of the total population in 2022.

Editor’s note: Data for this chart are available in the table below.

Employment–population ratios

The employment–population ratio—the percentage of the population age 16 and older that is employed—is generally higher for Asians and Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders than the U.S. average. In 2022, the employment–population ratio was 62.7 percent for Asians and 63.9 percent for Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders. The overall ratio for the nation was 60.0 percent. The greater likelihood of employment among Asians and Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders partly reflects the fact that both groups—particularly Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders—are more likely to be ages 25 to 54 than the overall population. People in this age range are more likely to be employed than those in younger or older age groups.

Editor’s note: Data for this chart are available in the table below.

Population diversity

Asian Americans trace their roots to many distinct and culturally diverse peoples. We collect labor market information on seven different Asian groups—Asian Indian, Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Other Asian. As shown in the chart below, Chinese and Asian Indians represented the largest proportions of Asian Americans in 2022, at about 23 percent of the population each. Japanese, at 5 percent, represented the smallest share. Labor force measures can vary widely among these groups. For example, Asian Indians had the highest employment–population ratio (68.3 percent) among these groups, while Japanese (56.2 percent) had the lowest ratio.

Editor’s note: Data for this chart are available in the table below.

Unemployment

The unemployment rate for Asians tends to be lower than for Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders and the total U.S population. However, during the recession in 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the unemployment rate for Asians reached an annual average of 8.7 percent and the rate for Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders reached 8.9 percent. Those compare with the U.S average of 8.1 percent. By 2022, the unemployment rate for Asians had fallen to 2.8 percent and the U.S. average had fallen to 3.6 percent, little different from before the pandemic in 2019. The jobless rate for Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders was 4.0 percent in 2022.

Editor’s note: Data for this chart are available in the table below.

The unemployment rates of the seven Asian groups vary. Among these groups in 2022, people who identify as Japanese had the lowest jobless rate at 1.8 percent. The rates for Asian Indians, Chinese, and Vietnamese were 2.7 percent. The unemployment rate was 2.9 percent for Koreans, 3.1 percent for other Asians, and 3.2 percent for Filipinos in 2022.

Editor’s note: Data for this chart are available in the table below.

Educational attainment

Educational attainment plays a large role in determining labor market outcomes. This is a major contributing factor behind the lower unemployment rate of Asians in the United States. For example, 61 percent of Asians age 25 and older had a bachelor’s degree or higher in 2022. By comparison, 38 percent of the total U.S. population and 27 percent of Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders had a bachelor’s degree or higher.

Editor’s note: Data for this chart are available in the table below.

Earnings

People with higher levels of education tend to have higher earnings. For example, the median weekly earnings of workers age 25 and older with less than a high school diploma was $682 in 2022. That was less than half of the median earnings for those with a bachelor’s degree or higher ($1,544). Asians with a bachelor’s degree or higher ($1,834) earned considerably more than the overall population with the same level of education. Among workers with less than a bachelor’s degree, however, median earnings for Asians were closer to the earnings for the overall population in the same categories. The median weekly earnings of Asians with less than a high school diploma ($643) were slightly lower than the overall median for workers with the same level of education ($682). These differences in earnings do not account for other factors, such as occupation, industry, and age distribution of each group.

Editor’s note: Data for this chart are available in the table below.

This is just a sample of the information available on the labor force status of Asian Americans and Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders. Explore some of our other resources to expand your knowledge.

• The Employment Situation news release

• Labor force characteristics by race and ethnicity

• Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers news release

• Union Members news release

• Employment Characteristics of Families news release

• Geographic Profile of Employment and Unemployment

Percentage change in the population age 16 and older from 2003 to 2022

Group	Percentage change
Total	19
Asian	84
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander	119

Employment–population ratios, age 16 and older, 2003–22 annual averages

Year	Total	Asian	Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander
2003	62.3	62.4	63.6
2004	62.3	63.0	67.4
2005	62.7	63.4	70.2
2006	63.1	64.2	70.6
2007	63.0	64.3	69.4
2008	62.2	64.3	67.8
2009	59.3	61.2	61.8
2010	58.5	59.9	60.1
2011	58.4	60.0	62.2
2012	58.6	60.1	63.0
2013	58.6	61.2	62.9
2014	59.0	60.4	63.5
2015	59.3	60.4	62.8
2016	59.7	60.9	65.7
2017	60.1	61.5	62.9
2018	60.4	61.6	64.9
2019	60.8	62.3	66.2
2020	56.8	57.3	60.8
2021	58.4	60.6	62.2
2022	60.0	62.7	63.9

Percent distribution of the Asian American population age 16 and older by detailed group, 2022 annual averages

Group	Percent of total
Chinese	22.9
Asian Indian	22.8
Other Asian	17.6
Filipino	14.4
Vietnamese	10.2
Korean	6.9
Japanese	5.2

Unemployment rates for people age 16 and older, 2003–22 annual averages

Year	Total	Asian	Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander
2003	6.0	6.0	7.7
2004	5.5	4.4	6.1
2005	5.1	4.0	4.3
2006	4.6	3.0	5.3
2007	4.6	3.2	4.8
2008	5.8	4.0	6.4
2009	9.3	7.3	10.8
2010	9.6	7.5	12.0
2011	8.9	7.0	10.4
2012	8.1	5.9	11.8
2013	7.4	5.2	10.2
2014	6.2	5.0	6.1
2015	5.3	3.8	5.7
2016	4.9	3.6	4.4
2017	4.4	3.4	6.1
2018	3.9	3.0	5.3
2019	3.7	2.7	3.2
2020	8.1	8.7	8.9
2021	5.3	5.0	6.9
2022	3.6	2.8	4.0

Unemployment rates for the Asian American population age 16 and older by detailed group, 2022 annual averages

Group	Unemployment rate
Asian	2.8
Japanese	1.8
Asian Indian	2.7
Chinese	2.7
Vietnamese	2.7
Korean	2.9
Other Asian	3.1
Filipino	3.2

Percent distribution of the population age 25 and older by educational attainment, 2022 annual averages

Group	Less than a high school diploma	High school graduate, no college	Some college or associate degree	Bachelor's degree or higher
Total	8.8	28.2	25.0	38.0
Asian	7.5	17.5	14.1	61.0
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander	6.7	34.7	31.5	26.9

Median weekly earnings of workers age 25 and older by educational attainment, 2022 annual averages

Educational attainment	Total	Asian
Less than a high school diploma	682	643
High school graduates	853	784
Some college or associate degree	969	952
Bachelor's degree or higher	1544	1834